However, a business can’t just leap from the minds and labor of experts at law firms to a digital, data-driven, AI-powered future. Arriving at the Digital Law future requires patiently stepping through stages, each step standing firmly on the foundation of the stage before. Each stage takes time, multi-disciplinary expertise, investment, and committed leadership.
It might be presumptuous to compare this concept of the emergence of Digital Law to the vision of a human settlement on Mars, but there are parallels. Wernher von Braun wrote the first technical study on the feasibility of a human mission to Mars (The Mars Project) in 1948, updated in 1968 for NASA, based on the Antarctic expeditions of the day. He predicted the technosocial need for governments, people, universities, and companies to collaborate, invest in, and invent technological breakthroughs (e.g., reliable rocket-booster technology, efficient liquid-fuel propellant, and cost-effective reusable components). These breakthroughs have brought this vision within reach today – hello, SpaceX! While the Digital Law future we imagine is still a long way off, we see tremendous momentum, with industry leaders collaborating to work on business of law problems, such as optimising contracting.